Our Epic Art*o*mat® Road Trip Blog: Around New Mexico 4: Very Large Array

What is Art*o*mat®?

What is Art*o*mat? Created by Clark Whittington in 1997, Art*o*mat® machines are retired cigarette machines that have been converted to VEND ART! For only $5 you can collect paintings, drawings, sculpture, photography, jewelry, glass, mixed media and more -all the size of a pack of cigarettes. There are over 100 active machines in various locations throughout the country. "Mat," the machine featured in this road trip blog, was the first Art*o*mat® hosted in Washington state in 2005 and now "MAThilda" is proud to be the first machine hosted in New Mexico, debuting in February 2013.

Tuesday, March 6, 2012

Around New Mexico 4: Very Large Array

ATTENTION ALL SCIENCE NERDS!!! Be ready to have your mind blown by The Very Large Array! All the spacey stuff we've seen in New Mexico so far has only made Mat more excited about what's really "out there" in the universe. We drove south again, 50 miles outside of Socorro, to the amazing grouping of 27 gigantic radio antenna dishes that point in unison up to the heavens listening to ...whatever. The VLA was made famous (to most of us not-so-science-nerd-types) in 1997 with the Jodie Foster movie, Contact.

Mat at the Very Large Array: "Trust me. Those things are BIG!"

A radio antenna dish at the VLA is 422 feet across!

The Very Large Array makes Mat feel somewhat tiny and insignificant in the universe...

Mat thought it was amazing even if he wasn't quite invited to get close -being a machine and all. Us humans had a lovely time in the Karl G. Jansky Very Large Array Visitor's Center talking with Laura at the gift shop and taking the walking tour (where we could get up close and personal with one of the dishes -they're 422 feet across)! Even though it was windy and we were constantly assaulted by tumbleweeds, we were thankful for the sunny day and we got our photos taken before the clouds came in and made everything look too dark and looming.